John Howard's former "fair pay" umpire, Ian Harper, has poured cold water on suggestions that the minimum wage affects Australia's economic competitiveness.

The head of the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council, Maurice Newman, last night singled out wages as a key issue in a speech to the business community, noting that Australia's minimum wage is higher than that of the UK, the US and Canada.

"When you find out that the minimum wage in Australia is $US33,500, you compare that with most of Europe at around $22,000, Canada, which is our probably closest competitor, which is $22,000 and a 44-hour week, you realise you're right off the pace," he told AM this morning.

"There is no suggestion in anything that I've said, or would recommend, that says we've got to halve our minimum wage in order to get back to some sort of parity with the rest of the world, but when we're $US33,500 and the US itself is only $US15,080, you can see there's an enormous disparity."

In the speech to the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia, he slammed Labor's spending record and complained the minimum wage was a drag on the economy.

But Professor Harper, who served as head of the Howard government's Fair Pay Commission and is now a partner at Deloitte Access Economics, told The Business that cutting the minimum wage will do little to boost the economy as few workers are paid at that level.

"When it comes to the competitiveness of the Australian economy, really the minimum wage is not a big deal. Very few Australians are paid the absolute minimum wage," he said.